Although in the following the present invention is described in connection with cars, it is not restricted to the latter and can be used for any type of vehicle.
In modern vehicles, driver assistance systems are used which are increasingly complex. For such driver assistance systems and functions, such as e.g. highly-automated driving, a large number of sensors are required in the vehicle which enable the accurate detection of the vehicle surroundings. In order to control the vehicle autonomously, it is necessary, for example, to recognise traffic lanes reliably, so that the vehicle can be driven within an identified traffic lane.
In modern assistance systems, fusion concepts are being developed for the environment sensors. A representation of the vehicle surroundings, the so-called environment model, is created from different data sources, e.g. radar sensors, cameras, driving dynamics sensors, GPS and digital cards. The aim of data fusion is to achieve greater precision and safety as well as a greater field of vision relative to individual data sources.
In particular, with regard to highly-automated driving a high degree of system availability is necessary. The focus of the fusion architecture used today is to improve the precision and field of vision and increase the safety of detection.
The high degree of interconnection between the individual components or software modules means that if one individual module fails this easily impairs the functionality of the whole system.
However, this is inconsistent with high system availability, which is necessary for automated driving.
For example, the calculation of the vehicle position is currently based on the ESC sensor cluster (ESC: Electronic Stability Control) and is used by modules such as object tracking and occupancy grids. If the ESC sensor cluster fails or the positioning module contains an error, all of the other modules are also affected and the whole system fails.
The background description provided herein is for the purpose of generally presenting the context of the disclosure. Work of the presently named inventors, to the extent it is described in this background section, as well as aspects of the description that may not otherwise qualify as prior art at the time of filing, are neither expressly nor impliedly admitted as prior art against the present disclosure.